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  4. Fall 1994
  5. The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care

  • Paul R. Portney
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 8, no. 4, Fall 1994
(pp. 3–17)
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Abstract

The contingent valuation method, wherein sample surveys are used to elicit individuals' willingness to pay for certain types of policies, is playing an important role in government decision-making. The most prominent applications are in the valuation of damages to natural resources from oil spills. But the contingent valuation method will be more important still if it is used to expand the range of impacts included in applied benefit-cost analyses. This paper explains the origins of the contingent valuation method and the route through which it came to be the center of both an academic and a legal debate.

Citation

Portney, Paul R. 1994. "The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8 (4): 3–17. DOI: 10.1257/jep.8.4.3

JEL Classification

  • Q26 Recreational Aspects of Natural Resources
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